“If I’m indomitable, then why am I so nervous about the grand opening gala at the hotel?” The words were out of her mouth, with more already falling before she could stop them. “Why am I so terrified that everyone will see my rams, and then they’ll look at me and I’ll be cursing myself for not wearing the right dress?”

Pulling her to her feet, he said, “You’re gorgeous just the way you are.”

His words made her belly flutter. They both knew better. “I can’t wear jeans to a gala.”

“Then we’ll go shopping.”

He was sweet, but like a typical guy, he still clearly didn’t get it. “The other women will all be salon-prepped and wearing designer outfits that cost as much as a condo on Maui.”

“I have a condo on Maui,” he said as the corners of his lips twitched, “and I can confirm that some of those dresses cost even more.” She was glad that the laughter bubbling up helped to untwist the knots in her stomach. “So let me take you shopping,” he said softly, as persuasive as he’d been on stage.

“You’ve already paid for the chariot.” For an amount she still had trouble wrapping her mind around. When she threw in the money he’d negotiated for her rams... Honestly, her head was still spinning. “A dress isn’t part of the deal.”

He circled her slowly, trailing his fingers across her neck until he’d pulled her hair back at her nape. “Think of dressing up as part of your job. Showmanship. Salesmanship.” His warm breath in her hair made her legs weak. The kiss on the tender flesh of her neck made her knees tremble. “You’ll amaze them,” he whispered as he pushed her hair to the other side and kissed her just below her ear, then licked her. “Soft velvet,” he murmured, circling her waist with his arms. “Silky lace.”

Suddenly, she couldn’t think straight, especially when he drew her back against him and all she could feel was hard, sexy male.

“Let them see you in all your glory, Charlie.”

His hands skimmed her flesh, his mouth crumbling her will and his honeyed words seducing her. She succumbed to the reckless urge, spinning around to kiss him breathless, not breaking apart until Sebastian’s private pilot cleared his throat and let them know he was ready for them to board the plane.

* * *

“I’ve got so much work to do on the chariot. But you seem to be able to talk me into anything.” Charlie mock-scowled as she stood in front of him in the designer showroom wearing a red floor-length gown with a slit up the leg. “Except this dress. It clashes with my hair.”

Sweet Lord, Sebastian was hot for her. He’d watched her dress and undress for forty-five minutes, zipped her into six different outfits, four of which he’d liked, none of which Charlie would consider. Now he was a heartbeat from throwing her over his shoulder, locking them together inside the nearest storeroom, and ripping the dress off her so he could finally do everything he’d been fantasizing about for weeks. Touching her, Tasting her. Taking her.

It had taken him four days since their L.A. trip to arrange a shopping expedition. Not because of his crazy schedule, but because Charlie had thrown herself back into the chariot and horses, working with total focus around the clock. What amazed him wasn’t her work ethic, but the way she dealt with screwups. When something wasn’t going right, she simply laughed at herself, then moved to another piece to clear her head. Whereas Sebastian had never been able to go back to a drawing once it had gone wrong. To date, he had four sketchbooks stocked with the woman he still couldn’t bring into complete focus or total understanding.

He hated that she wouldn’t accept just how extraordinary she was. Up on that stage, he’d spoken directly to her, told her everything he believed she was capable of, that she could do anything.

But he wasn’t sure she’d heard him.

Right now, however, he had to agree that despite the display of elegant leg, the red dress just wasn’t Charlie. “Try something short and sexy.” He gave in to the urge to run his hand down the outside of her thigh. “To show off your incredible legs.”

Charlie raised an eyebrow as she sauntered to the rack of designer dresses. “Now I know why you brought me here,” she teased before riffling through the dresses.

Because you mean everything to me.

The words knocked around in his head. His heart too. And they might have spilled from his lips if she hadn’t said, “How about this one?” She held up a black silk-velvet dress with three-quarter sleeves and a short, flared skirt. “It has pearls across the front. No, wait, that’s the back.” She frowned. “How the heck do you get into this thing?”

“I’d be more than happy to help you figure it out,” Sebastian said in a low tone ripe with desire as he rose from his chair. “Got to get you out of this one first, though.”

He trailed his fingers across her back, and nuzzled her hair, impossibly hungry for her. The zipper slid down, and he followed its path with his mouth, the taste of her skin filling him up. The dress slid to Charlie’s feet and she stepped out of it, leaning down, clad only in minuscule panties, to swipe it up and place it on a hanger. Then she looked at him over her shoulder, a sexy, flirty smile on her lips and her brilliant green eyes traveling his length.

His heart stuttered at her elegance and beauty. She wasn’t a model or a celebrity. She had no artifice. She was simply real, utterly perfect without any help from makeup or fancy clothes, and she made him crazy hot, hard, and reckless. When they finally came together, he knew worlds would collide. Oceans would overflow. Hell, volcanoes would probably erupt.

His mind whirling with images of her, he couldn’t find the clasp on the pearls slung across the plunging back of the black dress.

“I see how it works now.” She took the dress from him, standing so close that her all-Charlie, all-woman scent short-circuited his brain. “It unzips down here, then goes over my head.”

His heart started again, beating harder, faster as she pulled it on, all that beautiful, creamy skin disappearing from view. She presented her back for him to do up the short zipper until the velvet material hugged her figure, and his fingers trembled. When she stepped up on the dais again and slowly spun in a circle for him, he was unable to tear his eyes away from her.

She was dazzling, as if the dress had been made for her and no one else. The neckline scooped down to edge her cleavage and almost bared her shoulders. The bodice hugged her breasts, her waist, and the skirt flared gracefully as she twirled for him. But it was the rear view that did him in. Three strands of pearls draped the flawless skin of her back and the velvet plunged low, making him ache to put his hands and his mouth all over her.

“That’s the one.” He wanted her, needed her, in that dress, then out of it, the velvet lying on the plush carpet of his bedroom with Charlie spread out on his bed as the delicious main course.

She smoothed her fingers down the fabric, surveying herself in the mirror. Did she have any idea how badly he wanted the hands running over her body to be his? He might go completely insane if he had to wait another moment. He was certifiable for her.

And yet the waiting made his desire for her electric. It sizzled in the air around them.

“I like it too,” she said softly.

“Then it’s done.” He pushed a buzzer on the side table and the designer appeared so quickly she must have been standing right outside the dressing room. Her momentum swung her reading glasses on the end of their lanyard across her ample breasts.

“We’ll take it.” He needed to move quickly before the woman said anything about the price. “Can you wrap it up?”

“Certainly. Would you like an accompanying wrap or—”

“Wait.” Charlie cut her off. “How much is the dress?”

“Twenty-five.”

Charlie’s eyes bugged. “Twenty-five hundred?”